We cannot save ourselves; neither can any religion or legal regulation!  All a law can do is to identify what is right and wrong and define the punishment for breaking the law.  No rule can ever make people want to do what is right - even though it may, and often does, restrain unacceptable behaviour.  Even the best of God's laws and regulations for living can never make sinners holy (Romans 7:21).  All that God's law did was to condemn the sin in us, so that Jesus Christ could offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sin.  The whole point of God's Law was not to make us right, but to show us how wrong we are, and how much we need a Saviour!

All those who trust in Jesus do not just have their sin-debt cancelled; they also receive God's Holy Spirit.  He lives in them to give them power to live a new life, which does not offend God's law (Galatians 3:2).  It is not the fleshly work of determined self-discipline which achieves this, but the spiritual work of God in our lives - giving us the desire and the power to please Him. As Philippians 2:13 says, "... for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose."

The challenge of the Christian life is not so much, 'Will you try hard to live like Jesus?' but 'Will you let the Holy Spirit operate in your life?'  As Galatians 3:3-5 says, "Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? … So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?"

The answer is important for us.  We started following Jesus by faith, with the help of the Spirit: and that is how we must live every day (Galatians 5:25).  We can still refuse His work in us, and live according to our old sinful nature, but that is not God's will for us.  Only He can sort out the impossible messes around us and the big mess within us.  So today, decide to let Him do it and choose to cooperate with Him.